It was a week of smuggling weird things through customs (really weird things!), toy talk, time capsules, earthquakes, and the power of rings.

SLIME ME

German customs officials say a trail of slime led them to a stash of almost 100 giant African land snails and other items hidden inside bags at Duesseldorf Airport this month. Authorities said officials stumbled over one of the snails on a baggage truck and initially thought it was a toy until it started moving. By following the trail left by the 20-cm. snail, they found a bag with a hole, with another snail already peeping out of it – possibly preparing a dash for freedom. In total, officials found six bags containing 93 giant snails, 28 kg. of fish and smoked meat, and a suitcase full of rotting meat. All had been imported from Nigeria and were destined for an African goods store in western Germany.

The snails were handed to an animal rescue service in Duesseldorf and the meat was destroyed, customs officials said. “Never in the history of the Duesseldorf customs office has a trail of slime led us to smuggled goods,” said its spokesman Michael Walk.

WE’LL FORGO THE ACCOMPANYING PHOTO

Meanwhile, Nigerian officials seized thousands of donkey penises that were about to be exported to Hong Kong. Sacks of the donkey male genitals were seized at the international airport in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. The consignment was “falsely declared … as cow male genitals (but) after due examination, my export officers discovered they were donkey male genitals,” said Sambo Dangaladima, the Nigeria Customs Service area commander. A total of 16 sacks of the genitals were seized, he said, noting that an investigation has been launched.

TOY TALK

Voting has opened on which toys should go into the US National Toy Hall of Fame this year. The class of 2022 finalists are bingo, Breyer Horses, Catan, Lite-Brite, Nerf Toys, Masters of the Universe, piñata, Phase 10, Pound Puppies, Rack-O, Spirograph, and the top. “These 12 toys span the history of play. The top is as old as civilization itself and bingo has been played in some form for hundreds of years,” said Christopher Bensch, VP for collections at The Strong museum in Rochester, NY, where the hall of fame is housed. The inductees will be announced Nov. 10.

WELL, THAT’S A DILLY OF A PICKLE

The small northwest Iowa city of Sheldon planned to make the opening of a time capsule one of the centerpiece events of its 150th anniversary recently, but it ran into a slight problem: No one was sure where the time capsule was buried. “We’re trying to find instructions on exactly where it’s at before we just start digging,” said city exec Ashley Nordahl ahead of the event. “We think we know where it is, but to dig up concrete in the park when we have such a big event going on, we’re just postponing that to a little bit later in the year.” The time capsule was buried 50 years ago during Sheldon’s centennial celebration and over time its specific location became a bit fuzzy. “We still have every intention of finding it and digging it up,” Nordahl said. “It’s just a little more involved than what we originally had planned.”

(AFTER) SHOCK AND AWE

Two earthquakes hit Liechtenstein just as lawmakers in the tiny Alpine principality were debating the pros and cons of quake insurance. Lawmaker Bettina Petzold-Maehr had just warned that the chances of all Liechtenstein citizens being affected by an earthquake striking the country was high when the first small temblor hit. Petzold-Maehr laughed and continued until the second quake struck, visibly shaking the room. “This is getting a bit much…” speaker Albert Frick said, announcing a 15-minute recess.

LORD OF THE RING

A Massachusetts woman’s diamond wedding ring is back on her finger after a man with a metal detector responded to her social media plea for help and found it at the bottom of the ocean. Francesca Teal said she was tossing a football with her husband at North Beach, New Hampshire, when the ring that once belonged to her great-grandmother slipped off her finger. After hours of searching, she asked on Facebook for anyone who might frequent the beach with a metal detector to be on the lookout.

Her post was shared thousands of times and got the attention of a man named Lou Asci, who put on a wetsuit and headlamp and went into the water searching for the ring with his metal detector. The first two days he went looking, he had no luck, but found it on the third day while giving his search “one last shot.” He sent Teal a picture, writing in a message: “Please tell me this is the ring so I can finally get off this beach.”